Ocean Iron FertilizationA Timeline

The Iron Hypothesis eluded by John Martin in 1988 was the starting point of the history of iron fertilization. Since then, the timeline of the controversy on ocean iron fertilization may be described in a more relevant way as a cycle. Iron fertilization experiments were conducted in the early 1990s in a context of a weak legal framework regulating these activities. The media would then gain interest in these experiments, fueling calls for caution from the scientific community and thus advising on more research ans experiments. This cycle has been repeated for two decades now and the controversy is intact.The history of iron fertilization brings intimately together scientific, commercial and legal interests - that are co-evolving. In particular, private sector interests emerged for fish production enhancement and then intended to capture carbon offset credits from sequestered CO2.

A cycle: scientific experiments, media coverage, calls for caution and more research.